Turandot – A Night At The Opera ( On A Budget )

Yesterday evening, I went to see Puccini’s exotic final Opera Turandot at Cineworld in Glasgow. It was a live performance from the Royal Opera House in London which was screened in 1000 cinemas worldwide ( Link ).

My ticket cost £10.25 and I can honestly say “it was good for my heart” as Ivan Hewett wrote on Friday in the Telegraph ( Link )

I received a printed programme with synopsis before the show and at the beginning of each act the themes of what was to happen next were explained. A great way to see your first opera. You don’t need to know anything about the plot they tell you in a relaxed cinema environment. People were clapping he he, it was a joy. I even got a free pen! And the dates of next viewings which will definitely be going into my calendar!

Here is a sneaky peak at the trailer for the screening of Turandot 🙂

It was amazing, you would all have loved the extravagance of the costumes and masks. Ping, Pong and Pang are so exuberant and showed brilliant energy. I loved the drama of Liú’s voice, a slave girl played by Eri Nakamura, a Japanese Soprano, who created such a splendid encapsulation of the character! A real inspiration to me. I tweeted in the two intervals as it is an Opera in three acts and commented on my blog but I was a bit worried about my 3G allowance running out or I’d have shared the experience with you last night. I was blown away by the sense of nobility and power of the beautifully poised Turandot, played by Lise Lindstrom an amazing Ice Princess, Lise is an Amercian Soprano who sang the role last night for the 100th time in her career.

Turandot means “the daughter of Turan”, Turan being a region of Central Asia, it is a Persian word. Puccini never pronounced the final ‘t’ in Turandot. However, Puccini’s granddaughter has stated the final ‘t’ must be pronounced.

The dramatic story reveals the ultimate challenge for love: put your life on the line. Turandot asks her potential lovers three very tricky riddles (I got all three wrong eek!) if they do not answer correctly they will lose their head. But there is a twist, as Calaf upon correctly answering the challenge gives Turandot a riddle of her own to guess! If she can guess his name by morning, he will agree to be decapitated.

You can read more about the essentials of the plot on the Royal Opera House site ( Link )

The critics seem to agree that the production was 4/5 stars. You can check out two of them using these links.

Hmm, you’d have an audience of 3. Me, my wife and Bonzo our farm dog. The nearest we get to high octave vocal extravaganzas are when foxes come for the chickens, or there’s a domestic across the valley – boy, can she make some noise!

Sounds like a great evening. I think it’s fantastic that the Royal Opera House are doing this – a brilliant way to bring opera and ballet to more people – and such a bargain, too. Very jealous. (The screenings don’t come anywhere near me 🙁 )

I have been loving the Live from the Met cinema productions for years. It is such a thrill that we can have them from the ROH now too. It is becoming a habit with some local friends who have yet to get to live opera, but I am sure they will now. Turandot a favourite with me too from the old ROH production.

Hello Hilary, can you remember when you first saw it? Did you work out the riddles? Can you recall who played the Ice Princess? I was very impressed with the cast and the set designers were magnificent, I have to remember to say that more often my flat mate is a trainee set designer.
Best wishes
Charlotte

I really enjoyed experiencing the whole performance of Turandot, which could only have been enhanced by actually being there 🙂

My favourite opera so far has been “Eugine Onegin” whose story revolves around love and those who long for love. It is a beautiful story which brings dance into the performance so that earns it an extra star from me as I also love to dance.

Thanks Sandra, I love bargains, my Mum is very thrifty and hates paying more than sale prices for anything. My Nana’s favourite saying is ‘don’t get done get Dom’ she used to watch a program on the BBC about consumer rights and asking for deals/haggling 🙂

What a great way to spend the evening and this opera most certainly is an interesting one. Just watching the sneak preview of the trailer (“Where the wrong answer can cost you your life”)…I’ll be careful. This posting reminds me of when I saw “The Phantom of the Opera” many years ago, in Atlanta, and I’ll always remember its performance and music.

Hello Mary, thanks for your message, I remember watching Phantom of the Opera in London the staging was so brilliant I was blown away. I’ve always wanted to play Christine after watching it I learnt all of her songs.

Nice to see Covent Garden getting in on this – The Met has been screening in Moscow over the past couple of years and I’ve enjoyed my trips to some of those. And, like you say, definitely a good way of introducing people to opera (or ballet, theatre etc).

Somehow the atmosphere wasn’t the same at the cinema in Baku which they used for live Turkish football matches …

Hello Andy, its nice to see you back, thanks for commenting, you’ve reminded me to check your blog to see how the music scene in Moscow is doing.

I wonder if they would put both sets of fans in the same cinema? I could imagine that for the Manchester Derby this weekend lol 😉 although I have lots of friends that are Man United fans on match day we all get a bit emotional.

I know there is a festival called the Lammermuir festival in that area which finishes on 22/09 if I hear of anything else I’ll let you know.
The Scottish Opera are doing Don Giovanni co-produced with the Boston Lyric Opera in Glasgow on 15th October and Friday 18th, and in Edinburgh at The Festival theatre on 14, 17 and 19th November and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has a booking office that advertises shows in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

I have seen Turandot once, and I was not overly impressed by the production that I saw. Even though it was extremely lavish and colourful and everything. The only one I really liked was the soprano who played Liú. But this sounds like a fantastic production though, so I am sad that they will not be showing it at Acusticum (a concert hall connected to my school, where they not only have concerts, but show live opera on the big screen as well). 🙂

Hello Michelle,
Thank you, I hope you have a fabulous visit/term to London. Where are you studying? I love going to musicals, we try to go to London once each year to do just that. My top choices would be:
Les Miserables, Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, Ghost, and Legally Blonde (but I’m not sure if the last one is still on).
Best wishes
Charlotte

I am able to go “to the opera” in a tiny theater just 20 minutes from our farm here in Sweden. Sometimes I have been in the theater while my daughter is in the audience in NY! That was fun. I would love to be at the Met for opening night of this season! All of tis made possible because of the new director Peter Gelb! Thank you !!

I’m a bit late to the party, but can I just say thank you for posting this? I just found out there’s a cinema quite close to where I live where I can watch those screenings. Maybe I’ll finally get to see an opera that’s not a horribly mangled “underground” production…